André Bazin (1918-58) is credited with being the spiritual father of
the French New Wave. Among those who came under his tutelage
were four who would go on to become the most renowned
directors of the postwar French cinema: François Truffaut, Jean-
Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, and Claude Chabrol.
Volume 2 of The Catholic Critic: André Bazin on Hollywood Movies,
1945-1958 contains, for the first time in English, much of Bazin’s
penetrating writing on American cinema: on such subjects as
Hollywood, the western, Technicolor, the crime film, and “foreign
figures” (North American movies that, in some cases [Queen
Christina], are set in foreign countries, and in other cases take place
in no apparent or identifiable country at all [Rythmetic]). Volume 2
of André Bazin on Hollywood Movies, 1945-1958 also features a
sizeable scholarly apparatus, including a contextual introduction to
Bazin’s life and work, a bibliography of Bazin’s articles on
American cinema, credits of the films discussed as well as
filmographies of their directors, and an extensive index.
This collection is aimed, as Bazin himself would want, not only at
scholars, teachers, and critics of film, but also at educated or
cultivated moviegoers and students of the cinema at all levels.

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